21.7.17

POLITICS DIVIDES, TRADE UNITES.

The farm in Yesan contained 149 dogs, including puppies, all of whom will be rescued and transported to the United States this month. The rescue is occurring just as the Bok Nal summer season, during which South Koreans kill and eat more than one million dogs as a spicy soup, gets underway.

This is the ninth dog meat farm that HSI has permanently closed since 2014, rescuing and rehoming nearly 1,000 dogs by working in cooperation with dog meat farmers keen to get out of the trade.

The rescues and farm closures are part of HSI’s broader strategy that aims to encourage the South Korean government to end the dog meat industry.

That reminds me of some old economics problems involving international trade, in which rich country pet food producers purchased the fish caught by developing country farmers. (And I wonder what sort of substitute protein goes into Bok Nal.) No Barack Obama jokes, please.

The potential danger extends far beyond the areas immediately surrounding Lang Farms. According to [Sterns County sheriff Don] Gudmundson, mink "can travel for miles and miles and miles."

Police are convinced an advocacy group is to blame, though they have no hard proof. Gudmundson noted that while the intention in freeing the mink may have been to save them from being killed for their furs, their release may bring them more harm than good.

Unlike mink born and raised in the wild, the formerly captive animals lack some necessary survival skills.

"Some of the mink are dying from the stress or something else, we don't know," he said. "A large number will starve to death. They weren't taught to hunt by their mother. Others will get run over in the road."

"More harm than good." Isn't that true of any action by an activist whose hands are more active than his mind is?